Fairhope alum Riley Leonard finished with 173 passing yards and 63 rushing yards with two touchdowns to earn MVP honors and help the Duke Blue Devils beat Central Florida 30-13 in the Military Bowl Wednesday night at Navy-Marine Corps Memorial Stadium.

It was a fourth straight bowl victory for Duke where Leonard became the fourth consecutive Blue Devil quarterback to go home with the bowl game’s MVP trophy. However, his sophomore campaign of 20 passing touchdowns and 13 rushing touchdowns made him the first-ever Duke quarterback with at least 10 rushing and 20 passing touchdowns in a season.

Those touchdowns on the ground also helped set a program record where the Blue Devils finished the season with 31 rushing scores to break the previous single-season record of 29 from 1954.

With the win, Duke had its first nine-win season since 2014 but Leonard said the bar is already set for next year.

“I’m kind of a guy that’s never really satisfied so I look back on the season of nine wins but I expect 12, 13, 14 going into the national championship so my eyes will be set on next year probably tomorrow,” Leonard said in the postgame press conference.

Leonard’s two rushing scores gave him his fourth career multi-rushing touchdown game so far as well as solidified some podium finishes in the statistical leaderboards across the Atlantic Coast Conference.

The former Fairhope signal-caller finished third in the ACC in categories like passing completions (250), passing yards (2,967), rushing touchdowns (13) and touchdowns responsible for (33) as well as registered fifth in passing touchdowns (20) and sixth in rushing yards (699).

His rushing touchdowns and yards were top among ACC quarterbacks where he finished one ahead of Louisville’s Malik Cunningham (12 rushing touchdowns) and UNC’s Drake Maye (698 rushing yards) respectively.

Across all FBS quarterbacks, Leonard’s 13 rushing touchdowns trails only Bo Nix (14 rushing touchdowns), the former Auburn Eagle and current Oregon Duck. Leonard was also one of three underclassmen signal-callers to collect double-digit running scores alongside Boise State freshman Taylen Green (10) as well as Heisman Trophy winner and USC sophomore Caleb Williams (10) whose Trojans are set to play Tulane in the Cotton Bowl Jan. 2, 2023.

Of course, it is a team sport and Leonard said the squad’s bond and culture at Duke University shined brightly in the postseason action since 2018.

“I couldn’t be more happy for the guys, these seniors; like Coach (Mike) Elko said, nobody left this game,” Leonard said. “Even the seniors, guys who maybe want to leave next year or go to the NFL draft, every single person in this organization played in this game and that goes to show the culture we have and will have for a long time.”

Elko, who won ACC Coach of the Year honors his first season as a head coach, highlighted that notion in his opening statement of the press conference.

“From where this team was and this program was walking off the field at the end of the 2021 season, to walking off the field today as the 2022 Military Bowl champions, nobody can understand the amount of work and the amount of character that went into that. This is not a day in age where people grind through hard times, where people stay and stick together,” Elko said. “This group is special and this program is special and what this university’s football team is going to be about in the future. I think today was just a testament to all of that. A lot of great culture, great character and then some really good football.”